Discovery Academy

What to do when the child can’t solve a word problem.

"I don't get it..."

What are the main reasons that prevent the child from calmly solving math problems?
In case you are unsuccessful at helping your children develop methods in solving word problems, then this article is for you.
What should you do if a child cannot solve a simple task? The first thing is to calm down and remember that the difficulty of the task is subjective. Take a deep breath and remind yourself that now you are helping the child. Your child is not stupid and not lazy. You can’t explain, because you can’t find the right words, and the child can’t solve because he didn’t learn the needed skills yet.
In fact, there are common reasons as to why children have difficulty solving word problems. We will identify and learn how to overcome them and provide children with the right skills for success.
The first reason: children do not know how to read the word problem. Why is this so difficult for them?

Reading does not equal comprehension. You will not believe it, but having almost 40 years of teaching experience, I can say that even a 12th-grade student will not be able to do this after the first reading. Even as adults, we often need to read difficult problems multiple times before completely understanding the question. For children, it is difficult to read and process the information simultaneously the first time. The child is focused on reading. To make sure that children understands what the task says after the first reading, ask them to paraphrase. What the word problem is talking about? What do we know? What should we learn?
Therefore, the first step is: ask your child to retell the task in his own words. Very often this is already enough, and with shining eyes, the child will exclaim, “Oh! I understand!”
But what if it is not enough and the child still can’t answer the question? The next strategy is to write out and organize the information provided from the word problem. Teach your child to draw what is written in the task. It has to be done very schematically, with simple figures, just to figure out what is being sold or bought here, at what price, etc. Help the child imagine that it is he is the main hero of the word problem. It is he/she who drives a car, or catches fish, buys food or plant trees. This simple trick helps the child understand what is really happening and what he/she is asking about.
In case you are convinced that the child understands what the task says and yet cannot solve it, then the problem is in misunderstanding of arithmetic operations. Most children grasp the idea of addition and subtraction based on their life experience, but for many, multiplication and division remain an abstract concept. Of course, without experience, it’s hard for you to do this. I hope to share my insight with you through these letters so you are able to support your child more effectively through their academic journey.
In a second letter, I’ll show you how to help the child with multiplication and division. If you have any other questions? You can write it to me directly and I will answer you.
I think that each of us has been in such a situation. What follows next? In the best case, we suppress a sigh and say: think again. You can’t multiply cats by sweets! For a child, in our phrase there are two keywords: you can’t multiply, so you have to divide! And he/she looks into your eyes with hope. Do not be upset or annoyed! You just have to let the child feel the difference between the multiplication and division, just as he feels the difference between addition and subtraction.
Please, remember: it takes time to understand but if we are calm and kind, the process is going much faster.

Sincerely,
Dr. Marina Blumin

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